A south Alabama mayor shown on video hitting a raccoon with a shovel and then shoveling the animal’s lifeless body away from a Gulf Shores road said he was within his rights to kill the raccoon amid outrage on social media.

Atmore Mayor Jim Staff was on vacation in Gulf Shores over the weekend when he was recorded hitting the raccoon. The woman who recorded the incident posted it to Facebook, angering locals who said the raccoon was friendly and was appearing on the side of the road because residents would feed the animal.

But in a statement, Staff said the raccoon was anything but friendly.

He said the animal ran at his wife, and that he then threw a stick at the raccoon in hopes it would go away. Instead, the raccoon ran next to a garbage can and stared at him.

“I took a shovel … because I didn’t know what the raccoon was going to do. At that point, he ran at me. That is when I hit the raccoon with the shovel,” the mayor said.

Convinced the raccoon “was dying and would not recover” Staff then decided to put the animal out of its misery and repeatedly hit it with the shovel.

Staff claimed the Facebook video was “misleading” because it did not include the raccoon’s “bizarre behavior.”

“I am an animal lover and I would never intentionally injure an animal,” the mayor said. “However, when a wild raccoon, which is normally a nocturnal animal, exhibits this unnatural behavior and runs at my wife and then at me, I have every right to be fearful of what may happen.”

A state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources official told NorthEscambia.com that Staff’s actions were not illegal.

“It is O.K. to defend yourself against a wild raccoon,” said Chris Lewis, assistant chief of enforcement for the department.